A Review of Breville’s Smartest Grinder – BCG800XL

Auto Grinding Mode

Automatically prepare up to 12 cups of coffee

Versatile Settings

25 grind settings +adjustable dosing up to 20%

Removable Hopper

Easy storage and keeps beans fresh

If you are looking a mid-range burr grinder packer with value, then you've come to the right place. The Breville BCG800XL Smart Grinder is a quality burr grinder that comes with many features that's normally not available at it's price range. The coffee grinder is very easy to use; it comes with 25 grind settings, dosing adjustments, and an intuitive on-board LCD screen.

More importantly, this smart grinder comes with an automatic grinding mode. Once setup, the grinder can automatically prepare up to 12 shots of coffee based on your preference. In addition, this burr grinder comes with a removable hopper, which allows for easy bean-storage and pouring. Overall, the Breville coffee grinder is elegant, produces uniform grinds, and is very user-friendly, it's best suited for home or small business use – this grinder truly lives up to its name.

What We Like

What We Don't Like

Difficult To Clean Bottom Burr Due To Access

Frequent Maintenance Required For Optimal Operation

Unable To Save Personalized Preference

The Breville Grinder is Most Suitable For

The Breville BCG800XL Smart Grinder is an excellent grinder for coffee lovers who want enjoy a great cup of coffee at home. This coffee grinder may also be suitable for small coffee shops and restaurants who just want to use it for some quick, no-nonsense, and simple grinding for small amounts of coffee.

The smart grinder is suitable for all kind of coffee lovers; it produces uniform grind on the coarser side, and exceptional grind at the finer side. For espresso fanatics who know their coffee and grind their beans hand free, the Breville Smart Grinder is the perfect choice for you.

Video Review

The Burr Grinder's Feature in Detail

Design & Appearance

Style

This coffee grinder looks sophisticated and come in 3 colors: silver, cranberry and black. The on-board LCD screen is very modern, intuitive and user-friendly. It’s nice medium size so it won’t take over the countertop. Overall, the machine is both elegant and functional.

Breville LCD Display

Burrs

This Breville grinder is powered by 2 x 40mm stainless steel conical burrs. You can remove the upper burr easily by simply grabbing the convenient handle and pulling it. However, the bottom burr is a bit more difficult to access.

Accessories

This versatile grinder comes with a range of extra accessories. It comes with 2 portafilters (1 x 58mm, 1 x 50/54mm), a ground container, and a cleaning brush – all of which are free and at no additional costs. This allows you to fully enjoy your coffee and maintain your grinder.

Low Noise Level

This burr grinder is a lot quieter than many others. It won’t cause too much disturbance when coffee lovers are up early for their fix of coffee beans.

Ease Of Use

Versatile Settings

The Breville BCG800XL Smart Grinder comes with 25 grind options. It produces fairly uniform grinds for French Press, but exceptional grind for Espresso. One of the best features of this espresso grinder is it’s easy to adjust – once you’ve chosen your grind, the machine automatically adjusts the dosage. This way, you can get the perfect amount of coffee ground.

You can also manually adjust the strength of coffee, with each turn representing 5% increase or decrease of the dosing. This makes it easy to grind a precise amount to cater your specific tastes.

Despite all the fancy adjustments available, it would be great if you could save your favourite settings. Unfortunately, this is not possible on the Smart Grinder.

Removable Bean Hopper

The bean hopper’s design is very thoughtful. It comes with a locking system that closes the hopper bottom, and so allows you to remove it without the beans falling out. The hopper also comes with a well-fitted lid with an ergonomic ring remover on top. What this all means is the hopper can act as an airtight container, which allows you to keep your beans longer.

Ease Of Cleaning

Cleaning & Maintenance

This is a hassle free grinder (sort of). The grinder comes with a removable catch tray, you can easily whisk away any mess made by the grinder. This usually only happens when you use the portafilter, as the ground container is a perfect fit.

You get 2 of these portafilters

However, one common complaint about the Breville Smart Grinder is that the inside is difficult to clean. I tried it myself and the bottom burrs were indeed very difficult to access from the top, I had to do some manoeuvring to give the grinder a good clean. I think this won't be too much of a problem except for those who enjoy very dark roasts as oily beans tend to cause more of a problem.

If you prefer very dark roasts, then The Coffee Barrister team don’t recommend you to buy this grinder.

Price

This Breville coffee grinder currently runs for around $230 (last checked on Jan 2016). This is a very good deal considering what it has to offer – versatile settings, uniform grind across all ranges, ergonomic hopper design, and all the extra accessories.

Breville BCG800XL - Summary

Breville does everything with their users in mind, not only did they make this ergonomic grinder, they also made it simple for potential customers by summarising everything on the image below:

The Coffee Barrister's Verdict

Overall, I think the Breville BCG800XL Smart Grinder is definitely one of the best coffee grinders within its price range. It provides great features usually reserved for higher end markets such as the removable hopper and grind uniformity. The capacity and quality make it a great home-use or small business grinder.

For home use and business alike, the no-nonsense, easy to use adjustments don’t require endless fiddling to find the right grind and dose. Although it may pose some small difficulties for a good clean, in light of the grinder’s virtues, this is a small inconvenience. The overall appearance is pleasing and compact as well as very functional. Its versatility and high performance are sure to please even the most demanding and experienced coffee-lovers.